Unlike almost all of its 27 sister schools in the Florida College System, Tallahassee Community College has never wanted to get into the business of offering four-year degrees.

But when the region's health-care leaders came to TCC President Jim Murdaugh, asking him to add a bachelor's of science in nursing program to help address a critical shortage, the college did its homework and got buy-in from the board of trustees last October.

Now that plan is in limbo, through no fault of TCC.

On the final day of the legislative session that concluded earlier this month, lawmakers passed a bill calling for a 12-month moratorium on new four-year degrees at Florida's 28 state colleges.

State Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, concerned about the proliferation of four-year degrees and the competition they have created with the state's 12 public universities, wants the Department of Education to study the issue and offer recommendations in time for the 2015 session.

TCC's proposal, which had cleared several hurdles and had been submitted to Chancellor Randy Hanna on Dec. 1 for the required 100-day public notice period, became inactive before the education department could approve the proposal and the college could present it to its accrediting agency.

TCC officials are hopeful that the suspension imposed by lawmakers will not delay the launch of their first four-year degree program by more than one semester. If all goes well, TCC could begin offering it in January 2016 instead of the planned August 2015 start date.

"I'm thinking if we'd only done this last spring instead of last fall we'd be good to go," TCC Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Barbara Sloan said. "We're disappointed, but we're still hopeful."

It's ppossible no one is more disappointed than Mark O'Bryant, president and CEO at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare. He wants TMH to attain a national magnet designation, which requires a hospital to have at least 80 percent of its nurses with BSN degrees. At TMH, only about 50 percent of the nurses have BSNs.

"Clearly we want to add a larger number of bachelor degree nurses," O'Bryant said. "We're not happy, but we'll be patient. We'll continue moving forward, but there may be some delays."

O'Bryant is particularly eager for TCC to begin producing BSN degrees because, unlike the students at Florida A&M and Florida State universities, the students at TCC tend to be from the Tallahassee area and they tend to stay here after earning a degree.

State Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, attempted to add an amendment to Negron's bill that would have exempted TCC from the moratorium on reviewing or approving new four-year degrees, but his effort failed. Five state colleges wanted to be added to his amendment with degree proposals that were in the works.

"I felt very strongly about this. It's a workforce issue," Montford said. "These people had a job waiting for them and it would be exceptionally good for the health-care community here. I think they (lawmakers) just didn't want o make an exception."

There has been a proliferation of four-year degrees in the Florida College System. There are 176 as of this summer, the education department reports, and many of the one-time community colleges have changed their name to reflect their new status.

TCC trustees, however, have spent little time discussing a possible name change. They devoted several months to considering the proposal to add a single four-year degree and listed to a unified pitch from O'Bryant and members of nursing programs at Florida State and other schools.

TCC President Jim Murdaugh said he agrees with Negron's concern and welcomes the discussion around baccalaureate degrees from the state college system.